There are several known methods for monitoring ion implant doses, including sheet resistance based methods and thermal wave based methods. However, these two methods are not sensitive enough to be reliably used for monitoring low dose (1E11 cm−2) and low energy (<10 keV) implant. Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS), which is another method for implant monitoring, has the advantage of high sensitivity, but its low throughput limits its applicability for in-line process control. Techniques that employ the measurement of Surface Photovoltage (SPV) to determine doping concentration can be used for monitoring low dose implants but the results obtained when using such techniques are generally not reproducible for near surface doping measurement.
In view of the above, a method which is able to provide good reproducibility and sensitivity for monitoring low dose and low energy ion implants is to be desired.
A routine search of the prior art was performed with the following references of interest being found:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,710, Opsal et al. Method and apparatus for evaluating surface and sub-surface features in a semiconductor. U.S. Pat. No. 4,755,049, Bomback et al. Method and apparatus for measuring the ion implant dosage in a semiconductor crystal. U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,669, Opsal Method and apparatus for evaluating ion implant dosage levels in semiconductors. U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,408, Kamieniecki et al. Real time in-line testing of semiconductor wafers. U.S. Pat. No. 6,268,916, Lee at al. System for non-destructive measurement of samples. U.S. Pat. No. 6,265,890, Chacon et al. In-line non-contact depletion capacitance measurement method and apparatus. U.S. Pat. No. 6,326,220, Chen et al. Method for determining near surface doping concentration. U.S. Pat. No. 6,011,404, Ma et al. System and method for determining near surface lifetimes and the tunneling field of a dielectric in a semiconductor. U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,776, Stowe et al. Non-contact mechanical resonance method for determining the near surface carrier mobility in conductors.
It should be noted that none of these prior art references addresses the problem of reproducibility especially during low dose ion implant monitoring.